Prabérians

Rousset uses the agricultural working village of his childhood, on the border of France and Switzerland, to examine the totemic and ritualistic aspects of rural life.

Over twelve years, Thomas Rousset has probed every corner of his family village to create a surrealistic yet tender docufiction of its inhabitants. As small-scale agricultural villages appear stuck in time or close to extinction, Rousset catapults Prabert into a fantastical, hallucinatory world, creating heightened moments of absurdity amongst intimate portraits and observations of daily village life.

In his creative collaborations with his fellow Prabérians, Rousset engages with deep traditions of rural eccentricity and a dignified non-conformity that unites and binds communities against the harsh realities of everyday agricultural life. Rousset mixes these exaggerated scenarios with striking landscapes and naturalistic portraits, hinting at the creative potential locked within the land and its inhabitants, and the daily dance between work and play, solemnity and joy.